The captain of the Costa Concordia was ordered by the coastguard to return to the stricken ship after claiming that the evacuation was almost complete when it had scarcely begun, according to transcripts of radio calls and telephone conversations published on Tuesday.

The transcripts indicate that Captain Francesco Schettino said he was going to return to the vessel. But two Italian newspapers, which published the transcripts, said that he instead walked from the rocks where the liner had come to rest to the port of Giglio and there caught a taxi to take him away from the scene of the disaster.

A witness who boarded the cruise ship Costa Concordia after it grounded has added damning claims about the behaviour of the captain of the vessel. Mario Pellegrini, the deputy mayor of Giglio, said he boarded the stranded vessel at about 11pm.

"I then remained on board until 5am helping passengers leave. Although I asked for the officers I couldn't find one – and I never once saw the captain," he told The Guardian.

A regional parliamentarian who visited Schettino in the jail where he is being held quoted him as saying: "The voice of my conscience cries out the loudest of all."

One of the newspapers, Corriere della Sera, said the crew began preparing the lifeboats 13 minutes before the order was given to abandon ship. It described the action, by some of Schettino's officers, as "a kind of mutiny".

On Monday, the chief executive of the cruise company operating the vessel praised the crew at a press conference in which he placed the blame firmly on the captain. But Pellegrini said: "The crew, many of whom did not speak English, were not professional." He said the only officer he found on board who was helping passengers escape was a ship's doctor.

After hitting a rock off the coast of Giglio last Friday night, the Costa Concordia continued past the port as Schettino turned it around and brought it to rest on a headland known as Punta Gabbianara. According to the transcripts, there, at 21.49, he was radioed by the harbourmaster's office in Livorno, which is a regional headquarters of the coastguard.

"Everything OK?" he was asked.

"Affirmative," came the reply. The coastguard was told the liner had suffered a "small technical failure".

Five minutes later, the coastguard radioed the bridge again. The second newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, which did not provide a source for its information, said that in the meantime the harbourmaster's office had been told by the semi-militarised Carabinieri police of a call from a passenger aboard the Costa Concordia talking about a shipwreck.

This time, the coastguard asked not only if the vessel was in trouble, but also what was its position.

"We've only got a technical problem and we're not able to [give the position]," came the reply. "But as soon as it's resolved, we'll communicate [it] to you."

Thereafter, all radio calls to the stricken liner went unanswered. But at 00.32 the coastguard managed to contact Schettino by telephone.

By then, the evacuation had been under way for only about 40 minutes. The captain was asked how many people were still aboard.

"Two, three hundred," he replied.

Ten minutes later, the coastguard rang him again. By then, said Il Fatto quoting a local fire brigade commander, Schettino had left his ship and was on the rocks at Punta Gabbianara.

He was again asked how many people were still aboard.

"I've called the ship owners, and they tell me that about 40 people are missing," he replied.

"So few? How is that possible?" asked the coastguard, before adding: "But you're on board?"

"No. I'm not on board because the bows of the ship are coming up. We've abandoned her."

"What do you mean? You've abandoned ship?"

"No. No way have I abandoned ship. I'm here," Schettino replied.

The final, and most dramatic call, took place at 1.46am when, after confirming that he was speaking to the captain, a coastguard officer told him: "Right. You are now going back on board. You are going to go back up the rope ladder, return to the bridge and co-ordinate operations."

There followed a long silence, Il Fatto reported.

"You must tell me how many people there are," the coastguard officer continued. "How many passengers, women and children – and co-ordinate the rescue."

Schettino protested that he was on hand.

"Captain," said the coastguard officer, cutting across him. "This is an order. Now I am in command. You have declared the abandoning of a ship and are going to co-ordinate the rescue from the bridge. There are already dead bodies."

"How many?" asked Schettino.

"You're the one who should be telling me that," came the reply. "What do you want to do? Go home? Now, go back up and tell me what can be done: how many people there are and what they need."

Full fathom five[1] thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes;Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:Ding-dong.Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.

Mr Obama received 79% of the "Jewish" vote. There has only been one national election in which ran, his support, well documented.

There has only been the one. That is the entirety of the data sets.

The idea that "Jewish " voters are abandoning the Democrats, floated in May of 2008, by the NYTimes, but ...

“The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel,” Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over brunch.

“They’re going to vote for McCain,” she said.

Ms. Grossman, 80, agreed with her friend’s conclusion, but not her reasoning.

“They’ll pick on the minister thing, they’ll pick on the wife, but the major issue is color,” she said, quietly fingering a coffee cup. Ms. Grossman said she was thinking of voting for Mr. Obama, who is leading in the delegate count for the nomination, as was Ms. Weitz.

... despite the predictions, Mr Obama maintained the historical norm, of "Jewish" support for the Democratic candidate.

When David invaded the the land of the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the Amalekites he left no man or woman alive. He conquered Rabbah and Ammon, and put the people of those cities under saws and harrows and axes of iron and made their dead bodies pass through a brick kiln.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of a loyal officer named Uriah, and tried to cover it up. When this sin was in danger of being exposed, David him Uriah killed on the battlefield by other officers in order to obtain Bathsheba as his wife.

On his sick bed he ordered a beautiful young girl named Abishag the Shunamite to stay in bed with him and try to cure his sexual impotence. On David's death bed he broke his promise to Shimei not to kill him, and arranged to have him murdered.

After reigning over the House of Judah for forty years, and over all of the House of Israel for thirty-three years, King David died in 970 BCE, and he was succeeded by his son Solomon.

David's harem of forty women also passed to his son. And it was written in the chronicles of the kings of the House of Israel that King David did right in the eyes of El, that David was a man after El's own heart, that he was an angel with a heart perfect with El, and that evil had not been found in David all his days.

The polling, in July, 2008 did not match the actual results, in November of that year.

The survey, commissioned by the Washington-based advocacy organization J Street, found that only 58 percent of American Jews said they would definitely vote for Obama, an Illinois senator. Another 4 percent said they were leaning toward the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they would vote for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), with 3 percent saying they were leaning toward the presumptive GOP nominee. That would represent a higher showing among Jews than the 24 percent President Bush drew in 2004.

Mr McCain garnered 21% of the "Jewish" vote, despite the polling showing he was doing "better", with that subset of the electorate.

thousands and thousands of jew hating trash posts have been spewed on this blog...

the Rat and Ms T?

Are just, for the moment, the head-anti-semites.

I am sure other's will ride to their rescue spewing forth even more anti-semitic, anti-israel or anti-judaic filth.

I love how they get defensive when they get called on it...

Interesting...

But it's quite apparent who and what they are...

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

On Paul's website, boobie, the comments run to the question of citizenship of the father.

If he was a Mexican citizen, then he's have dual loyalties, and Mitt would not qualify as "Natural Born".

But Mitt's father was, fer sure, a US citizen, though not born in the USA. Which makes Mitt "Natural Born" ... unless... Daddy was a dual citizen, both US and Mexico, as some claim, then Mitt's not "Natural Born".

Comes down to the citizenship of the father. US only, Mitt's good to go, dual citizen and Mitt is no "Natural"

When Mitt Romney’s father George Romney ran for President in 1968, nobody seemed to care that he was born in Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico. The media just assumed that because his parents were allegedly US citizens he was too. The media never really questioned the possibility that Romney’s ancestors, who voluntarily left the Utah territory for Mexico before Utah became a state in 1896, may not have been citizens within the meaning of the Fourteen Amendment. They, like many other Mormoms, may have left because they opposed the conditions forced on Utah to become a state, like the elimination of polygamy. They, like many other Mormons who were in Utah during the so-called Utah War, may never have accepted the authority of the United States over the Utah territory. Many Mormon settlers tried and failed to set up a theocracy called Deseret. In other words, the Romneys may not have been "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States such that they were born citizens under the Fourteen Amendment.

If ol' man Romney was a Mexican, it would seem to put Mitt in the same sort of category as Obama.

heh

I don't think Jindal, or that guy from Florida, what's his name, are Natural Born Citizens, either.

It's getting harder and harder to find an authentic Natural Born Citizen, these days.

I provide quotes and links to articles pertaining to the topics of the day. Whether they be generated by the thread title or the news, or what suits me to post.

I question things we all "know".Like the creed of the sectarian regime, in Damascus, Syria. For years I thought I "knew" that the Assad clan were an off brand of practicing Shiite.

When nothing could be further from the truth. The four decades of the Assad regime, in Syria, has seen a systematic repression of radical Wahhabi in Syria.

The US policies toward Syria for the past forty years have led to the Russians obtaining a naval base on the Med.

Jan 10, 2012(UPI) -- Russia's only operational aircraft carrier and other warships are visiting the Syrian port of Tartous in an apparent display of support for ...

So much for the "War on Islam"

The US is allying with the Wahhabi against those of the Alawi creed, psuedo-Christians. Sectarians with a forty year track record of controlling the radical Islamoids of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria.

'Alawis reject Islam's main tenets; by almost any standard they must be considered non-Muslims.

Some 'Alawi doctrines appear to derive from Phoenician paganism, Mazdakism and Manicheanism. But by far the greatest affinity is with Christianity. 'Alawi religious ceremonies involve bread and wine; indeed, wine drinking has a sacred role in 'Alawism, for it represents God. The religion holds 'Ali, the fourth caliph, to be the (Jesus-like) incarnation of divinity. It has a holy trinity, consisting of Muhammad, 'Ali, and Salman al-Farisi, a freed slave of Muhammad's. 'Alawis celebrate many Christian festivals, including Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday. They honor many Christian saints: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. George, St. John the Baptist, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Mary Magdalene. The Arabic equivalents of such Christian personal names as Gabriel, John, Matthew, Catherine, and Helen, are in common use. And 'Alawis tend to show more friendliness to Christians than to Muslims.

For these reasons, many observers - missionaries especially - have suspected the 'Alawis of a secret Christian proclivity. Even T. E. Lawrence described them as "those disciples of a cult of fertility, sheer pagan, antiforeign, distrustful of Islam, drawn at moments to Christianity by common persecution." The Jesuit scholar Henri Lammens unequivocally concluded from his research that "the Nusayris were Christians" and their practices combine Christian with Shi'i elements.

Senor Assad has his hole card.Any bets there are tactical nuclear weapon on the aircraft carrier "Nikolai Kuznetsov"?

(Reuters) - Russia signaled on Tuesday it would not make major concessions over its draft Security Council resolution to end bloodshed in Syria, sticking by its key ally in the Middle East.

Moscow and Western members of the U.N. body have been deeply divided over the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov did little to suggest there was sufficient common ground to agree a resolution with France, Britain and the United States.

Syria is Moscow's chief ally in the region, one of its biggest arms customers and home to naval base it uses. A Russian-operated ship docked in Syria last week that carried ammunition, Russian and Cypriot sources said.

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. has “very grave concern” about arms reaching the Assad regime after news reports that a Russian shipment of ammunition arrived in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said.

Chariot, a Russian-owned ship carrying bullets, was detained by Cypriot authorities on Jan. 9 and allowed to proceed two days later after agreeing to change its destination to Turkey, the Cypriot national broadcaster CyBC reported without saying where it got the information. Instead, the ship stopped transmitting its automatic-recognition signal and went to the Syrian port of Tartus.

“Unfortunately there is not an arms embargo against Syria which we certainly think is overdue in part, because as you well know, some members of the council including Russia have indicated opposition to any form of sanctions,” Rice said in New York.Russia has weapons contracts with Syria of at least $3 billion, according to the Moscow-based Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. The orders include Yakhont anti- ship cruise missiles, MiG-29 fighter jets and Pantsir short- range air-defense systems. The port of Tartus is the only Russian base outside the former Soviet republics.

WHAT AN IMPRESSIVE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHENTS!!!Who said he hasn't done anything?

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States .

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico .

First President to defy a Federal Judge’s court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform Law.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party , a violation of the U.S. Constitution .

First President to spend a trillion dollars on ‘shovel-ready’ jobs when there was no such thing as ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.

First President to recommend changing our National Anthem as it portrays and promotes violence and is warlike in its theme.

First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer Breakfast and activities .

First President to initiate a Cash for Clunkers Program to clean up exhaust that adds to global warming, then extended it because it was so popular -- wasting hundreds of millions of Tax-Payer dollars.

First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.

First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U.S. , including those with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.First President to terminate America ’s ability to put a man in space.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke-out on the reasons for their rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which State they are allowed to locate a factory.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 90 to date.

First President to pledge complete transparency while campaigning, then hide his medical, educational and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to go on multiple global ‘apology tours’.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends; paid for by the taxpayer.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Qur'and tells us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

That's part of the disinformation campaign, sam, to not call the entire tax payment, to include the 10.4% in FICA, as income taxes.

It is a marketing sham by the Federals, to sow divisiveness amongst the electorate.

The Supremes decided, in Flemming vs. Nestor that Social Security/FICA taxes were described a THE TAX PROCEEDS ARE PAID INTO THE TREASURY "AS INTERNAL REVENUE COLLECTIONS," I.R.C., SEC. 3501,

Which is just exactly the same bookkeeping column as "Income Tax"

United States Code: Title 26,7809. Deposit of collections | LII / Legal ...www.law.cornell.edu › ... › Subtitle F › CHAPTER 80 › Subchapter A... of any internal revenue law, shall be paid daily into the Treasury of the United States under instructions of the Secretary as internal revenue collections, by the ...

I see the crapper is swimming away from the untenable and sinking SS Ron Paul, showing his loyalty to the man he has trumpeted all these years by climbing aboard the good ship Johnson, as yet unknown in all his own libertarian follies.

Perry, Gingrich and Santorum "had every opportunity to challenge the various Virginia ballot restrictions at a time when the challenge would have not created the disruption this last-minute lawsuit has," the judges wrote.

Federal law requires localities to send absentee ballots to overseas military personnel and disabled voters by Saturday.

Perry lawyer Joe Nixon said in a statement the campaign was "weighing options for appeal."

But urbanization, by itself, is hardly enough. Latin America is filled with megacities teeming with shanty towns housing unemployed and underemployed workers from the countryside, whose move didn't stop those nations from stalling economically.

...

Moreover, urbanization is hardly the only demographic trend sweeping over China. At the same time as more workers are moving into the cities, the size of the Chinese work force—those aged 15 to 64—is peaking as the work force ages.

More than 30% of the population is expected to be older than 60 by 2050, producing an increasingly heavy economic burden on those in the work force.

It's tempting to oversimplify the race among the five Republican presidential candidates who gathered on a South Carolina debate stage Monday night. It is, many say, a race between Mitt Romney and a handful of others trying to emerge as the anti-Mitt.

That's true, but it masks a more complex underlying reality that helps explain why the contest has become so nasty in recent days. In fact, four different camps have emerged among Republicans this year, and each camp has a favorite—or two.

Everything is being taken positively - China's slowdown means China's government will pump more stimulus into the economy. The dreaded European downgrades have come and gone without the earth opening up and swallowing us all, so that's good news, too.

This state of rampant bullishness won't last forever. You never know - it might not last the day.

Later we get the Empire State manufacturing survey and earnings results from Citigroup and Wells Fargo, all opportunities for the market's permagrin to waver. Jason Goepfert at Sundial Capital Research notes the market is now heading into a seasonally difficult period, for whatever that's worth.

The two parties are expected to negotiate an extension of a payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance and a Medicare "fix" that would keep payments flowing to participating doctors. A two-month extension of those three items expires in February.

The good news is that unlike the debt ceiling fight last summer, where congressional approval was in doubt, the latest debate is unlikely to roil the markets, said Mike Tanner, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.

"This is just pure politics," Tanner said. "Wall Street is not paying the slightest bit of attention to this."

For conservatives fighting to prevent Romney from winning a third consecutive nominating contest, the Palmetto State is seen as their last stand. A victory here would amount to a knock-out punch for Romney, according to most political observers.

With polls showing that six in 10 South Carolina voters are evangelical Christians, Romney's rivals view South Carolina as ripe opportunity to expand their support. At this point, Gingrich and Santorum -- and to a lesser extent Perry -- are splitting those conservative voters.

The GOP White House contenders will debate again Thursday night before voters go to the polls Saturday.

A man walked out to the street and caught a taxi just going by. He gotinto the taxi, and the cabbie said, "Perfect timing. You're just like"Brian!Passenger: "Who?"

Cabbie: "Brian Sullivan. He's a guy who did everything right all thetime. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happen likethat to Brian Sullivan, every single time."

Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody."

Cabbie: "Not Brian Sullivan. He was a terrific athlete. He could havewon the Grand Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang likean opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should haveheard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy."Passenger: "Sounds like he was something really special."

Cabbie: "There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He rememberedeverybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order andwhich fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. Ichange a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Brian Sullivan, hecould do everything right."Passenger: "Wow. Some guy then."

Cabbie: "He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoidtraffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. ButBrian, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a womanand make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she wasin the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highlypolished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No onecould ever measure up to Brian Sullivan."Passenger: "An amazing fellow. How did you meet him?"

Cabbie: "Well, I never actually met Brian. He died. I'm married to hisfuckin' widow."

Stratfor views what most people refer to as "al Qaeda" as a decentralized global jihadist network rather than a monolithic entity. This network consists of three distinct and quite different elements. The first is the vanguard al Qaeda organization, which we frequently refer to as al Qaeda prime or the al Qaeda core.

...

The second element of jihadism associated with al Qaeda is a worldwide network of local or regional terrorist or insurgent groups. These groups have been influenced by the al Qaeda core's philosophy and guidance and have adopted a similar jihadist ideology.

...

The third and broadest element of the global jihadist network encompasses what we refer to as grassroots jihadists. These are individuals who are inspired by the al Qaeda core -- or, increasingly, by the franchise groups -- but who may have little or no actual connection to these groups.

Jerry Yang rode Yahoo Inc.'s swift rise and subsequent decline over 17 years. Now the co-founder of the onetime dominant Internet company has decided to stop hanging on.

...

Yahoo denied there was any conflict and people close to Yahoo said Mr. Yang was acting with the board's blessing and that he had retained his own lawyer to advise him on potential conflicts. Another person close to Yahoo said company directors hadn't expressed any concern about Mr. Yang's motivations.

Within Yahoo, Mr. Yang stepped up his presence after the firing of Ms. Bartz, people familiar with the matter have said. He has attended high-level company meetings and been involved in engineering and corporate development strategy, including Yahoo's $270 million acquisition of ad-technology firm Interclick Inc., announced in November, these people said.

When one is faced with anti-semitic remarks, flippant anti-zionist drivel and just an around historic blood libel throwing type of person, some of us recognize the true potential of real violence that it causes.

Jews have seen for centuries these types of people.

They have caused numerous deaths on scales simply unimaginable.

The good news is that there is a new type of Jew today, one that will call out the bomb thrower for what and who they are....

I will never be nice to polite genocidal advocators.

No matter how sweet the words, no matter how nice they seem, evil still exists and some of us can see it clearly.

The gentleman rapists is still a rapist.

Those that politely call for Jews to commit suicide are still advocating the genocide of Jews

For the past two decades, Austrian banks have focused on expanding into Central and Eastern Europe, a strategy that has largely shielded Austria from the effects of the crisis in Western Europe. However, this exposure to countries that have experienced financial instability since the beginning of the European crisis such as Romania, Hungary and Ukraine has had some drawbacks, endangering banks' subsidiaries that operate in those countries and their Austrian headquarters and, most recently, with Standard & Poor's Jan. 13 decision to downgrade Austria's credit rating.

...

Despite these recent setbacks, Austria still considers Central and Eastern Europe both a profitable market and key to its efforts to establish a greater geopolitical foothold in its near abroad. It will thus remain a central financial player in the region in the near future while attempting to limit its presence in the riskiest countries.

Austria benefited from the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union in two ways. First, the country went from being a frontier state at the edge of the Iron Curtain to being the geographic center of the European Union's eastward expansion.

At the same time, formerly communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe were beginning to open their markets to the world, creating the need for banking sectors that these countries had neither the expertise nor capital to create or maintain by themselves.

Unrest in Saudi Arabia's Shiite-concentrated, oil-rich Eastern Province began in February 2011, when Shiite protesters began calling for the release of long-held Shiite political prisoners. That demand was soon echoed by a call for political reforms, including increased rights for Shia.

...

The first anomalous clash between security forces and activists occurred Oct. 3, when a police station in the Eastern Province was reportedly attacked with guns and Molotov cocktails. Eleven police officers were among the 14 injured in the attack.

...

The increased aggression in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province is noteworthy, especially at a time when Iran is attempting to consolidate and expand Shiite influence in the region. Since the beginning of the unrest in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province and Shiite-majority, Sunni-led Bahrain, Saudi Arabia has been quick to blame disturbances on Iran.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.